Skull
by Morgan K'Treva
Summary: Stories behind stories, for who knows what is lost in the telling?
1. Chapter 1

I sit there and stare blankly down at myself, and at the small, chubby hand holding the pacifier. In front of me, Fon and Luce were trying to calm the raging Reborn, beside them, Verde was already running tests on him self as with his machines, Lal Mirch furiously lecturing Colonello beside him. Next to them was Viper, grumbling to himself about how he was going to loose money.

I can understand their reactions, none of their professions really depend on being in adult bodies. Fon was an assassin, and he was part of the Hibari family, no one would stop giving him jobs. Luce was the boss of Giglo Nero, enough said. Reborn was a hitman, so no one would stop giving him missions either, and if he needed, he had the Vongola, no matter how much it was denied.

Verde was a scientist, and had enough money coming in from his patents that he was set. Lal Mirch and Colonello had CEDEF and Combusin. Viper was a physic and an illusionist he could pass himself off as an adult or even just create an adult figure.

But me, I'm a stunt man, immortal yes, but to be a stunt man you need to be able to reach the pedals. I've got some money stored away for if I got injured, but it was only enough for one year.

I stubbornly choke back a sob as I turn from the circle of other powerful people, and walk away from the circle slowly so that I don't attract anyone's attention, and get them to force me to show them my face.

When I get to the bottom of the mountain, I have to choke back another sob as I stare up at my bike, the full reality finally hitting me.

The others have support networks to back them up, but I have nothing. I have to smile bitterly as I turn away from my bike and start trudging down the long road leading to the closest town.

I was always the youngest and least qualified of the group, and being cloud natured didn't help either. So here I walk off, half hoping that this was just a bad dream, half hoping I could just die, and save the world the trouble.

But I'm Skull, the immortal stunt man, the Acrobaleno's cloud, and I won't allow my self to be tethered. After all, Luce and the others aren't my family, no matter how much they care for me. So, during the long hours I have to walk, I think, and I plan, using the one aspect of my mind that had kept me alive and made my reputation know to the mafia despite being entirely legal.

When I get home after seeking onto a plane and hitch hiking a lit- a lot, I drag an old computer with a couple of hazard stickers on the out from under my bed, and smile at them as I plug it in and wait for it to charge. I grab a piece of paper and start writing down the beginnings of my plan, and what kind of a person I was going to reinvent myself as.

I need to be reclusive, most likely a hermit of some sort, possibly shy, and intelligent; ideal age: 20, the same as my actual age, and with no living family or close friends.

Then I turn to my computer, which had charged enough for me to use, and I start typing, my eyes taking in the information on the screen in quick sweeps as I hack into data bases around the world, quickly grabbing the dead within a day folders, and put in a sweep for people born the same year as me. I feel a brief moment of sorrow when I realize just how many folders I have before I narrow it down to those who were reportedly intelligent, looking for a higher grade average.

Luckily that brought the number down to a hundred, and I quickly start reading these, discarding many of them for one reason or another until the I get near the bottom of the file. My eyes widen as I read the name; Erin Baker, and I choke a little. I quickly open the file, laughing as I read the details. It seems that the cover up people I had payed had finally done their job. The forensic lab report of a leg bone that someone's dog had dug up had come up positive as a match for my DNA.

I snort and trash the file, going onto the next one. Once again, my eyes widen as I read the report and hold back a swallow. The report was about my old friend Aaron, a loner like me whose parents had died when he was five, and my mother had been given custody of him and his sister because our mothers had been friends. They'd stayed with us till my mother had died of a cold durring the winter before we had split ways, meeting once a year to discuss things and make sure we were all okay.

The file said that he had been killed in a hit and run, and that his sister was taking care of his affairs. I'm kind of surprised that the sweep didn't remove his file from the list.I look at the file for a moment before I sigh and close the computer, turning and starting to pack. Seems like it's time to visit Gaia again.

* * *

><p>When I show up with my bags, Gaia simply looks at me for a moment before opening the door up wider. "You going to stay home this time Erin?"<p>

"What are you talking about sister?" I ask, dragging my bag over the threshold.

"And my name's Aaron, not Erin," I say turning to meet Gaia's eyes. She looks at me for a moment before nodding.

"Welcome back Aaron," she said, closing the door. "Play the piano for me?"

* * *

><p><em>I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn.<em>


	2. Chapter 2

I pull the curtain across the alcove the piano was in and slip into it, resisting the urge to pull a lock of my hair down to check if all of the original blonde had come back and I start warming up my hands. After a minute or so, Gaia slips in and nods to me, relaxing against the wall as she sat. I take that as my que and start playing the simple piece in front of me, letting my fingers dance over the keys with the clacking of silverware and mummer of voices in the background.

I let my mind wander as my fingers move on automatic. It hadn't taken long for my habits from back when I had first started playing at five, when my fingers were too small for the huge piano, to come back, allowing me to easily play despite my size, and when I had realized that, back when I had first played for Gaia, I had smiled bitterly. The two of us had edited the government's files to show that Aaron Tash had only been in a coma, and bribed the doctors on his case with all of my money to get them to agree.

We had privately cremated Aaron's corpse and buried him in a corner of the ancient graveyard. Then Gaia had gotten me this gig as the pianist for a restaurant in a hotel, pretending that she would be playing, and now, the two of us came here every evening to play for the restaurant.

Half of me is waiting for the other Acrobaleno to find me even as I build up my reputation as a reclusive, but brilliant artist and possibly a writer as Aaron Tash, also starting an underground personality, Saw Dust, as an explosives dealer.

None of my customers ever meet me, and I disguise my electronics by bouncing the signal off over fifteen different servers in different parts of the world, and a lot of it through public wifi hot spots as well as wiggling through a couple holes in government servers. When it came time to exchange money, I instructed my customers to transfer the money to a specific bank in their country, and setting up the accounts with his interest rates. The moment the money was in the account, their doorbell was rung by the closest high speed delivery service with their explosive in a brown box.

It wasn't hard to find the customers, after getting past the security of the some of the less guarded families, I was able to find out who some of the major suppliers were, who they supplied to, and who had demands for more. It only took breaking into a few more networks before I figured out who would have to be eliminated to create a large enough sink hole in supply and demand to allow me to be properly supported, and soon I hacked into their accounts and drained them of all of their resources, and hired some random kid off the street to give them a free sample of something they wanted (surprisingly, mast seemed to just want trips to Hawaii.

Their samples or brochure sheets were covered with a slow acting poison the could be absorbed through the skin, and after each man, I knocked the kid out, gave him the antidote, and left him in his home, or the most secure place for them I could find.

I blink, coming back the present without a hitch in my playing as Gaia rests a hand on my shoulder. I quickly finish the section of the music that I'm on with a swirl, and turn to her with a glance.

"We're done for now," she told me softly, and I nod. The two of us slip out and with a glance at the nearly empty restaurant, make out way to my boss. He waves off a pair of servers as we approach and smiles at Gaia.

"Excellent job, one again my dear," he told her with a smile before directing his attention down to me with a smile. "I hope you're nephew inherits your talent."

I scrunch my nose, but force myself to clap. "Aunty make pretty noise!"

My boss smiles at me before turning back to Gaia.

"It's the end of your shift dear, so you can go now. Be careful of the traffic," he advised her with a smile.

"I will," Gaia said with her usual soft manner, and the two of us walk out.

"Thank you for letting me get you a job where I can listen to you play," She aid as the two of us get into her minivan.

"Welcome," I tell her, sliding into the front seat.

We drove home in comfortable silence as I watch the scenery pass and consider my options.

Now that we had enough money to make it worthwhile, I could duplicate it with my flames and then Gaia and I could wander the world. But though it sounds nice it would be hard to keep doing, I've never been good at living out of a suitcase.

There's also the option of going back to the Underworld and doing . . . something other than selling explosives for money, but that was never really my thing. The only reason I had gotten involved in the first place had been to find out who had been messing with my manager, and that had pulled my down into the darkness, so it's not really something I want to do. Besides, it would be easier for the others to find me then, being an assassin who refuses to be seen, even to meet with their benefactor screams suspicious, even to those of the underworld.

Despite everything, the best option I have is to keep doing what I'm doing right now. I would have to move every three or four years, but despite the fact that it would be boring, it would keep me alive.

I sigh and lean back as Gaia pulls into her driveway, hopping out of the car as soon as it rolls to a stop. I'll stay here for now, and maybe I might visit some of my family. I haven't seen them in years, not since Mama's funeral when I was seventeen. I consider that I Gaia and I go inside, and I hop onto my bed as I time we move I'll go see my cousin Tsuyoshi. I should probably finnish off the rest of my punk attitude though, or he'd think that I wasn't my own son.

I can't have anyone knowing that I'm still alive.


	3. Chapter 3

In the end, we go and stay with some of Gaia's relatives in China as I touch up my Japanese. It doesn't take long for things to go wrong for me, and Gaia meets a man during our second week who interests her, and the two of them start dating. I silently make the arrangements to leave for India a week before the second month is up and leave in the middle of the night, leaving Gaia a note.

I end up contemplating life in general from the box I'd gotten myself into, swaying with the postal truck as it moved back and fourth away from Gaia's relatives. My life in general hadn't been that good, despite Mom trying so hard, but with her being the sole money maker in the house of four (since my no good father had knocked her up and left the next morning), she was always staying overtime on her job, leaving Gaia as the eldest in charge of everything, even though seven isn't really the best age for cleaning, cooking and taking care of two rowdy boys. Our neighbors, a nice old couple to one side, and a young couple who had decided that they didn't want kids, but still liked playing with them helped immensely. Once they learned of our predicament, they were always inviting us over for dinner, and giving us lunch, and cleaning up the house as they taught Gaia how to handle Aaron and me.

Mom was always there to tuck me in good night though, gently kissing me on the forehead before pulling back. The first think I really remember is seeing her staring out the window, her blonde curls creating a halo around her as she smiled. She was the one who got me my first computer, and she was the one who always bought me a bunch of hazard stickers and sticking them on.

I hadn't been interested in computers at all, they were huge, awkward, and my dearest frenemy brother liked them, which was enough of a reason to me. I'd decided that piano and bike tricks were my life, and nothing "the little dino-rex Aaron" thought would change that. I was never one for sitting down and playing games, I'd much rather be riding my bike or practicing my piano. It wasn't like I gained nothing out of letting Aaron hog the computer though, because when he was between games or just didn't feel like them, he would write amazing stories on the computer using the word processor, stories about magic and gods and angels and destruction. There was one thing about his stories that I always liked the best though, and one thing he never forgot to put in, the one ordinary person who was suddenly thrust into a world of chaos and bad luck.

Even now as I go over the stories in my head, I'm struck by how intricate his stories really were, and with a strong wish to read the ones we'd managed to transfer through laptops time and time again.

It took me a long time to actually have any interest in computers, simply because of how easily I was able to entertain myself with other things. It wasn't until about a year before Mom died that I realized just how much information I could get out of hacking.

By then, Gaia had graduated from high school and had started working as a waitress in a restaurant near our house. This meant that we had comparatively much more to spend coming off of the salaries of two people.

Despite all this, my Japanese uncle didn't stop urging my mother to bring Gaia, Aaron, and I to live with him and his son Tsuyoshi. My mom always declined, though I've never known why exactly, but despite that, my uncle continued to send occasional gifts of money, and letters, usually sending one from his son Tsuyoshi as well (his wife, who had been my father's sister had died during the childbirth of a stillborn baby).

When my mother died, he kept sending the money and asking for us to come to Japan until we moved and din't leave a forwarding address. I didn't really have any contact with them after that, but when I first started investigating the mafia (which took surprisingly little work), I found out that my cousin, Tsuyoshi had gotten mixed up with the mafia, as one of two apprentices of a rare sword style. He hadn't exactly stopped fighting in the underworld after his master and fellow apprentice were killed, but he was much more subtle about it after that incident.

I blink as suddenly a purple glow lights up my box, startling me out of my thoughts. I pull the pacifier that I'd found around my neck after the incident out of my shirt, and sure enough, it's glowing purple.

The truck suddenly rubles to a stop, and people start talking to each other, arguing over the sound of the engine. There's a sudden yelp, making me freeze as the truck turns off. I stay as still as I can, using my cloud flames to duplicate the oxygen in my lungs and letting that push the carbon out. The door to the back of the truck opens and I stay still as someone climbs up into the truck.

Then something that sounds very much like a toddler's voice pipes up, and suddenly the box that I'm in is lifted up. I manage not to yelp as I'm roughly bumped and rolled around inside the box, but the toddler's voice outside the box says something, and who ever's carrying me becomes more careful. I'm set down on a flat surface to the sound to the toddler's orders and the carrier's replies before a door shuts, and another door opens and slams. The car stars up as something carefully opens my box.

"Skull," the toddler says, and I cough out the old air in my lungs, opening my eyes to blink up at Fon.

"What do you want?" I ask tiredly, dragging a hand through my hair as I sit up. Fon looks almost surprised at my appearance, without make up or jewelry and my hair dyed black, I look like almost any other toddler. I'm not even wearing motorcycle gear, but a simple blue shirt and shorts.

"We were worried about you," Fon says. I scoff.

"I'd believe that you were and that Luce was, but there is no way that others were."

"Skull-"

"No," I snap before I sight and drag my hand through my hair again. I can almost feel my flames burning through the dye and turning my hair back to purple. "Just- What do you want?"

Fon's expression is unreadable as he look at me before sighing.

"Do you have a job?" he asks, and I nod.

"I'm Saw Dust."

There's an awkward silence, as the two of us just sit and stare at each other. I get the feeling that he wants to help me, but he knows that I'll just reject it, and he's trying to think of a way to get me to let him help me. I eventually pull out my computer and start playing a game, letting him take me where ever he wants for now.


	4. Chapter 4

I open up another file and lazily type up the latest customer's information as I'm led through traditionally painted, but otherwise modern house to a dinning room. Fon sits across from me at the square table and makes a sort of waving motion at his guards. Tea is brought in by a woman in a white blouse and black slacks, who bows once informally before leaving to room quietly.

"Skull," Fon finally speaks again, and I look up, closing my laptop. "I - I was worried about you."

I close my eyes and sigh, moving my laptop to the floor now. "I know Fon. It's just - it's just that all you had some one to fall back upon but me, and it wasn't like most of you really ever paid attention to me. I was always just - always just the lackey, the baby, the weakest, the one who needed protecting, and when it comes down to it, I'm not important compared to the rest of you. My flames replicate my body on instinct so that I'm immortal and that's made them the strongest, but I can't fight. The most you guys ever let me be was your escape ride, and even then, you didn't let me do any stunts that would have made it easier to get away because I'm apparently just going to kill you - even though you never took into consideration that my job is to do stunts! And now I can't do that because I need to be able to reach the petals, and they don't make bikes that small, and even then . . ."

I'd almost started yelling half way through, but now I'm just looking down at the tea cup cradled in my hands despondently.

"I'm sorry," Fon says quietly, and I look up and sigh.

"I know. But you were like that as well."

There's a silence again.

"Do you need anything?" he asks, almost desperate to do anything after the speech I gave.

"What did you guys do with my bike?" I finally ask. "It was a good bike."

"Luce called in someone from her family and they drove it to their base. I can ask Luce to send it here," Fon offers.

"Can't reach the petals," I remind him with a wry twist of my lips.

"What about one that's small enough for you?" For asked, taking a sip from his cup in an attempt to relax.

"Sure," I sigh, letting redeem himself. "Don't forget to get me gear too."

Once again, there's silence as I sip my tea and fight back the tears that were trying to claw their way out. I stare blankly at the wall paintings behind Fon as he stands up.

"Would you like to stay for the night?"

I blink and focus back on Fon as he looks at me uncertainly. "Sure."

He nods and turns to head out of the room, hesitating in the doorway. "If you ever need anything, just ask me."

* * *

><p>I wake up in the unfamiliar bed the next day, already on full alert as I sit up. I glance at the dresser and the closet that I'd given a cursory check over last night before I sigh and walk over to the dresser to grab a set of clothing that would both protect me and fit me, something I haven't had in four months since I had been shrunk. I carefully sort through the sets of clothing, looking for a set that doesn't scream underground with the triangles common in the Chinese Triads.<p>

Around the middle, I find a couple sets of dark rainbow outfits perfectly suited to the Acrobaleno, and missing the red outfit. I carefully lift the purple clothing out, and sit there, staring at the padded motorcycle suit, the formal suit with a purple undershirt that looks like Reborn's, the purple traditional Chinese robe, the purple accented white casual wear, and the purple accented green jacket folded neatly with a purple shirt and cargo shorts.

The door to my room opens, but I don't react to the familiar flames as Fon walks slowly towards me. He pauses by my side and looks at the clothing spread in front of me.

"Ah. You found it."

"Were you planning this?" I ask him, finally reaching for the motorcycle suit.

"Not really," Fon replies as he watches me pull off the night clothes I had taken from the bathroom last night. "It was half formed hope. Most of this clothing was going to be donated, with the exception of things you would actually wear."

"Can I keep it anyways?" I ask, zipping up the suit and stretching to see how well it fit. Fon is silent, making me look up to catch a glimpse of him staring at me in the mirror on the inside of the dresser door.

"It was made for you," Fon just says, and I turn to nod at him.

"Thank you."

Breakfast is awkward, and so is leaving after, with one of Verde and the Bovino families's Never-Ending Bags© stuffed with clothing, nonperishable food, and euros, dollars, pesos, yuan, and yen. (I watched Fon open the cases to examine the money before he dumped the case into the bag. He also had around a hundred cans, fifty cornbread mixes, and a hundred bottles of water stuffed in along with a closet full of toddler's clothing liberally dumped in before we took a ladder down to watch his men organize all of it. I think I caught sight of a stove and oven in there somewhere behind the cans.) I waved at Fon, pulling the Never-Ending Bag© onto my back as a backpack, before I set off along the crowded streets outside.

It doesn't take me long to loose the trail he tried to place on me by ducking under a barricade and slipping in front of a truck before he can get over. I half appreciate the gesture for the care he's showing me, and half scorn it for the babying attitude that hasn't changed.

I slip onto a plane heading to England by way of the baggage compartment, and sleep the flight away. I manage to sneak off the luggage claim when no one is looking and sneak into London in the luggage compartment of a taxi.

I carefully grab a room in a hotel that is last on the list of rooms to be assigned and sit down in the internet coffee shop across the way to see if any customers had requested Saw dust's services while I was at Fon's or on the airplane.


	5. Chapter 5

I sigh as I take a sip of my coffee and grimace at the lukewarm taste before I turn my attention back to my screen as I review my catalog and hit save to upload it to the web, finally done with my monthly update. I close my lap top and sit back to enjoy the rest of my coffee as I watch people walking along in the square. It's been two months now since Fon caught me, and while I haven't exactly thrived, I've done well enough I suppose. After I left Fon, the requests from the Triads for Saw Dust's explosives and smoke bombs grew, and with the attention, other organised groups in the underground started paying more attention to me, which had greatly increased my bank account (which I'm entirely sure was Fon's intention all along).

The novel I sent to my publisher under the name of my childhood friend Aaron Tash were approved, and the publisher had sent them out to print finally, with the cover I had drawn and designed. The cover and underlying message of it alerted the Acrobaleno that I'm not dead still, and told them all to stop being ridiculous worrywarts and trying to get Fon to contact me. I laugh under my breath as I remember the last line. "I walk away with my back to my friends as I follow the call that had brought me to them, that now brought me away.", my very aggressive way of reminding them that I am a _Cloud_, untethered, untamed, and more importantly from the Flame User point of view, unharmonized, a fact that I think they all forgot in the face of my disappearance.

I sigh now, and drain the last dregs of my coffee as I grab my lap top and hop off the chair. I throw the empty paper cup into the trash can, and start towards the bicycle I'd bought a few weeks back in lieu of a motorcycle. I'm about to kick up my kickstand when I feel it - the strange prickly feeling that means that not only is there a Sky nearby, there's a Sky unharmonized with a Cloud, and entirely compatible with me.

_In fact,_ I think as I shiver for a moment, my eyes drawn in the direction of the Sky, _This Flame attraction is worse than what I felt before._

My breath shutters as the urge to lash out at the Sky, to prove that I am worthy (of protection, to be fought for, of the single minded possessiveness that a Harmony brings), to be given proof that the Sky is worthy (can protect me, will allow me a place where I can close my eyes, where I can trust another with my back, to be protected), and I have to sit down next to my bike as the urges wash over me. My mind wanders back to the only other time that I've felt like this - at a party that Luce had guilted the Acrobaleno into going to.

Honestly, now that I think of it, that was probably what cemented my position as weak into the Acobaleno's minds, when they discovered how very sensitive to Flames I could get. I had collapsed halfway through the party, and the other Acrobaleno had rushed me back to Luce's mansion so her doctors could find out what was wrong with me. I remember feeling dizzy from the moment I entered the ball room the party was being held in, but I had refused to show it because I hadn't wanted to give the others another reason to think me weak.

It had gotten worse as the party went on, and more and more of the young, unbonded Skys that mafia dons often produced joined the party, unknowingly sending out the challenge, inviting Elements to harmonize, and warring. They warred over me especially, any Sky that wasn't already strongly bonded to a Cloud tried to attract me, consciously or unconsciously. I remember refusing alcohol offered to me because I already felt dizzy, and Reborn teasing me for it. The last thing I remember before everything went black is the bastard Reborn, looking concerned for once, his lips moving as he moved closer to me.

I woke up the next day feeling like I had a hangover, my head pounding, and too dizzy to even sit up. The feelings slowly abated, but even then, I couldn't stomach any food without throwing up until the morning after that, an apologetic Luce helping me. When I finally felt as good a new, a week had passed since the party, and Luce took it upon herself to explain to me what had happened.

_"Harmonizing is something that happens with flame users - as you already know," she told me, and I nodded in agreement. "What isn't always explained well until long after is why it happens, and what it actually is."_

_"Our doctors have discovered that when you use flames, certain genes that aren't normally paying any contribution become active. These genes are what allow you to produce flames, but they have a side effect, they also unbalance your brain chemistry. Your instincts - to protect your young or be possessive - they get stronger. Skys are so important because they help harmonize these instincts, and allow you to lean more on logic. They also gave you a target to focus any feelings that society really wouldn't accept and make the more normal."_

_Here she paused, and I remember looking up from the notes I was taking to look at her. She'd smiled at me and draped the daisy chain she had been making as we wandered through the garden over my head._

_"This is partly where your problem comes in. Because of how Flames work, the stronger an Element is, the more unstable they will be. Skys, as far as we can tell, we literally created to calm this instability, so unless the Sky and the Element's personalities are incompatible, the stronger an Element is, the more a Sky will try to harmonize with it, and the stronger a Sky is, the more unstable it's Elements will be because it'll be able to pull in and harmonize them. Like most things, it has it's flaws, if there is more than one Sky in an area, and the Skys both don't have the Element, then both of them will pull, and try to harmonize with the Element."_

_Luce frowned slightly as she spoke this part._

_"This can pull the Element apart, which is why the doctors believe that the Skys are so rare. If an Element goes long enough with out harmonizing, for what ever reason, they'll withdraw to protect themselves for Skys fighting over them, and except for one known case, never harmonize. You're unharmonized, and too young to have withdrawn, so the Skys without Clouds were fighting over you."_

_Luce paused again, and put another daisy chain crown onto my head, her eyes distant. She brushed back my hair and smiled at me after a moment._

_"You're also the strongest Cloud in the world, Skull. That's why you're an Acrobaleno. So, there were many young, unharmonized Skys in there, what do you think they would fight over?" Luse said. I blink at her, turning her explanations over in my mind, and glancing down at the notes I'd taken. The stronger an Element is, the more a Sky will try to harmonize with it._

_"Me," I say finally, almost unbelieving of my conclusion, but Luce only nods. I frown, thinking again. "But what about the rest of you?"_

_Luce blinked at me surprised, before she laughed._

_"Skull, all of us are either harmonized, or withdrawn," she said. "We're all at least a decade older than you, so we forgot about the trouble it could bring."_

_Then she frowned at me. "To be honest though, I think that you're more sensitive to flames than most, even with the strongest flames, the pulling shouldn't have torn at you so harshly or so fast."_

The smell of flowers that comes with the memory fades, even as the pull of the Sky lessens and gradually, reluctantly releases me. There were some things Luce hadn't told me at the time, like the fact that the more compatible an Element is with a Sky, the more the two clash in order to test each other, and about how fiercely possessive Skys can get in return, but overall, that was the most comprehensive explanation on harmonization I'd ever gotten. My breath comes easier and I almost sigh with relief as the last of the Sky's pull releases me. I sigh and reluctantly consider the nice plaza around me, mentally saying good bye before I push myself to my feet and kick up my bike's kick stand.

* * *

><p><em>Alright, here's a new chapter, I hope you like my explanation about flames.<em>


	6. Chapter 6

I pull over into one of the underground parking garage, take the ticket, and pull into one of the motorcycle spots near the door. I dismount and sigh, pulling my helmet off. My hair promptly falls into my face, and I grumble about getting a haircut as I push my hair out of my eyes, before pulling a hunk down to check that the black die I had put in last night hadn't been burned away by my flames yet. I smile in satisfaction when I can only just make out a purple hue in the artificial light, and push the hunk out of hair out of the way with the rest of my hair. I lock my helmet to my bike and strip off my leather to reveal the simple striped blue shirt and cargo shorts underneath before I start walking back up towards street level.

It's been a week since I felt the pull of that Sky in Seville, and despite not actually meeting them, the attraction still weighs heavily on my mind. I'd gotten on my motorcycle and driven straight out of there scared, because for the first time, that Sky's pull had not been one I'd wanted to resist, and I the only reason I hadn't gone after them while under it was the sheer weight of the pull, the welcoming feeling. Even now, a week and miles away in France, I can still feel the urge to go back there and throw myself at the Sky, to fight them and push them to greater heights, to protect them and be protected in turn.

I pause for a moment on the slope leading up when a humming bird flies down in front of me and hovers, offering the paper in its beak. I let it carefully land on my left arm and take the paper. The brightly colored bird dissolves into a puff of indigo fire once it looses loses contact with the paper, and I take a moment to shake my head as I let my arm drop and unfold the paper. _Meet me at Perpignan Spéciale._

Then the paper too, puffs away.

Luce's words echo back to me for a moment, about how personalities and strength had to be compatible, and I shake my head to shake off the thoughts as I step out of the parking garage and into the sunlight. I turn right after a glance at my surroundings and start to head for the restaurant I'd seen on my way here, which was a couple blocks blocks away. I hear giggling occasionally, and glance around to see a group of girls pointing at me before I dart off and loose them. It takes me ten minutes to get to the restaurant, and when I open the door, the bell at the top rings. The hostess at the station looks up, searching for someone taller as I wait patiently before looking down at me.

"Petit garçon!" she exclaims. "Vous devriez être avec vos parents ."

_Boy! You should be with your parents._

I stamp down my indignation. Just because I'm small doesn't mean my parents need to hover over me all the time! I'm twenty! "Non, je suis venu à l'avance pour avoir une table pour nous."

_No, I came in advance for a table for us._

The hostess nods hesitantly. "Combien de gens?"

_How many people?_

"Deux, moi et maman."

_Two, me and Mom._

She nods again, and looks down as she stands. "Bon, cette manière s'il vous plaît."

_Alright, this way please._

I nod and follow the blonde woman into the restaurant. She shows me a small round table next to a window with a starched white table cloth.

"Est-ce que c'est bon?"

_Is this good?_

"Oui," I say simply.

_Yes._

I climb up onto the chair and watch the waitress go. Then I turn to the person sitting in the seat across from me.

"Viper," I greet nem. "How have you been?"

"Busy," ne replies, swirling nir wine glass. There was a pause as ne sipped from it, and I can feel nir eyes watch me as I unfold the menu. "You make good explosives."

"Thank you," I say as a waiter comes up.

"Que désirez-vous?" he asks, and I choke back a laugh at the striped shirt and beret.

_What would you like?_

"Les enfants fondue s'il vous plaît," I say, handing my menu to him, and he turns expectantly to Viper.

_The kids fondue please._

"Rien pour moi," ne says, and the waiter nods and hurries off.

_Nothing for me._

"What is it Viper?" I ask, watching nem stare out the window and at the traffic on the street.

"I have a job for you, if you will take it," ne says.

"Another getaway?" I ask, my tone bitter. The waiter comes back in with my fondue moments after., setting the bowl of melted cheese down in front of me on top of the stand with a candle. Next to it a bowl of cut bread is placed, along with a bowl of apples. The waiter bows, then hurries off.

"No, not a getaway," Viper says, shifting slightly. "If your would allow it, a friend needs help hiding. I cannot hide him, my trade takes up far too much time, and you are the only hacker I know that I trust. I'll pay."

I sigh, dipping a piece of bread into the cheese in front of me and eating it. "What happened?"

"He caught the interest of two Skys that were both particularly compatible with him in Germany," Viper says quietly, and I squeeze my eyes shut reflexively as I remember my own recent call in Seville, but Viper isn't finished. "Both of them were also interested in him, and they started pulling. Even now with me helping dampen their influence, he says that he still can feel the need to respond."

"I'll do it," I say, taking a moment to relax my hand and start eating again. "Does he want to hide in any place in particular?"

"Somewhere sunny, he said," Viper replies with a well hidden relieved sigh. I push down my bitterness and the pain, the _that could have been yours _that comes as I nod_._ "Don't you want to know how much money I'm going to pay you?"

"No," I reply, scooping up the last of the apples in their bowl and plopping them into my mouth. I crunch and swallow them quickly, and dig out a 10 euro bill and place it on the table before I hop off the seat. As I'm about the exit the room, I turn. "I trust you."


	7. Chapter 7

I tap my foot impatiently as I wait for people to start streaming through the gate, and check the file Viper gave me once again.

I look up again as the door is pushed open, and lo and behold, Erasmo Dioli, the blond haired, blue eyed, fair skinned Cloud is the first off the plane, his icy eyes sweeping the area, and narrowing as they land on me. I give him a toothy smile as he walks calmly up to me.

"Mr. Skull?" he asks, and I nod.

"Mr. Dioli," I greet. "I have a ticket ready for you, if you will. This way."

I hop off my chair and onto my motorcycle. It's in its modified form; a wheelchair, made for when motorcycles are inappropriate. The sound of the motor is muffled, but it still works, and after a glance at Erasmo, I take off and start towards the gate for our flight, and connection to New York, then San Francisco, then to Honolulu.

The flights are awkward at first, but about halfway to New York, he asks me why I choose to take the job.

"I . . . had some bad experiences with Skys and rivalries," I say, glancing at the pacifier sitting on my chest for moment. "The latest was just a week before I got the job, and the Sky was particularly compatible. I . . . wouldn't have been a good guardian in the first place, even for a Cloud, but being an Acrobaleno makes it worse. I could still feel the pull when I accepted the job. I guess I just wanted to help."

Erasmo's eyes soften, and he nods. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," I say. after that, we start talking. As it turns out, he had read my book and he had quite liked it. It was nice to talk to a fan, who pointed out several plot holes in the book, some of them intentional and some of them not so much. It was interesting to see what he thought of it, and the whole time we spoke, I took notes. At some point between New York and San Francisco we gotten on the subject of fanfictions.

Most of our neighbors are asleep, but this doesn't deter him, and he practically shoves his lap top at me with a bunch of fanfictions he thinks are particularly interesting up. I don't finish the first one until halfway to Hawaii, and the other asks me what I think of it.

"It's interesting," I say, glancing down at my notes for the next book. "That author did a good job on character development, and while they didn't take it in a way that I would have, it was a very engaging read, and easily something that could have happened."

From there we get into how villains should be portrayed, arguing between the one with the tragic back story, the one who does it just to be evil, and the insane villains.

By the time we get to Hawaii, we've built up a friendship, and we easily walk out into the hot and damp air with our hair and clothing a little rumpled from sitting in planes for so long but not that bad. I easily talk my way through the process of picking up the car I had ordered from the rental, dragging an amused Erasmo behind me.

Once I manage to pack my collapsed motorcycle in the back, we're off.

I drive us away from the Honolulu Airport easily, out of Waikiki, and pass through the mountains to get to the rainy side of Oahu. Then I drive us up a series of winding and increasingly less well paved roads until I stop the car in one of the little parking spaces by the road.

"Where are we going?" Erasmo asks as he watches me unload my bike, and I turn to smile at him.

"One of my safe houses," I reply. "I didn't use it much, but it's out of the way, and a good place to relax. So long as you stay away from the tourist beaches, you should be out of reach of any Skys here."

I cross the road, rolling my motorcycle beside me and start onto the Pu'u Ohia trail. It's a bit hard to get my motorcycle through to Tantalus Drive because of the practically vertical stairs, the gaps in the trail and the branches the hang just at chest level for me, but I make do. I turn right on Tantalus Drive, and follow it for a bit, Erasmus behind me, before I take a right turn through the bamboo lining the road and slide carefully down the hill till I get to my safe house.

"That's certainly one way to hide something," Erasmo mutters, and I turn to look at him. Then I snort.

The professional look that had been damaged by hours on planes and in airports is now totally ruined, mud flecking his face, hair and suit, bits of bamboo leaves and stems are stuck in his hair, and the less said of his shoes the better.

"You're lucky it wasn't raining," I tell him as I unlock the door and step into the house. "I've made that climb when the rain was coming down in sheets, and let me tell you, it wasn't pretty. I've learned a bit since them though."

I flick the switch and a single light bulb flickers on revealing a pristine room with shower heads.

"Your mud room is your shower," Erasmo asks dubiously, looking up at the shower heads.

"Like I said, it wasn't pretty," I shrug. "You're my guest, so you should go first. I have to put away my motorcycle first."

"Wait," Erasmo calls out as I step out, making me glance back. "What about my clothes? And how do I get in when I'm done? And what will I wear after?"

"Put anything salvageable in that bin over there," I say, pointing at the mailbox type thing in one corner before I point to the bucket in the other corner. "And your shoes in there."

"When you're done, turn off the shower, and the door to the next room will automatically unlock," I say, my face darkening a little as I think. "You can wear anything from in there."

"Thank you," Erasmo says, and I give him a slight smile before I turn and wheel my bike towards the garage. I open the door and stare for a moment at the half built motorcycle within, looking like it's just waiting for me to come and put it together, and I sigh as I wheel the motorcycle Fon gave me into place next to it. Side by side, my current motorcycle looks like a toy, and it makes me want to cry as I once again realize what this curse has taken from me. I sigh then as I exit the garage and pull the door shut before I turn and walk back to the mud room. I sit down and listen to someone I barely know use my shower.


	8. Chapter 8

We stay together in my house for two weeks, going out to visit the beaches, to climb Diamond head, got to the museums, and generally talk and listen to each other. Personally, I'm indifferent to Hawaii. I've spent enough time here, between getting the house, and the times I've used it since that I've realized there isn't much to do if you don't really like beaches (which I don't). Erasmo loves it though, his pale skin tanning easily, and his already pale hair starting to look almost white from the amount of time he spent on the beach, and out in the sun.

There's an odd feeling of loneliness when we part, Erasmo buying a house on the island, already a week into his new job at the ABC store. We exchange contact info we hadn't yet needed, and I make my way to Japan on a cruise ship. I spend the time there making sure I come across as a very polite child. All of the tourists I meet adore me, with my straight black hair (dyed), and my polite, if overly traditional, manners.

I get of with the crowd at Tokyo, and grab the first train in the direction of Namimori, glad that I don't have to hide for once. I get off when Namimori's stop comes around, and start to wander the town, looking at everything in curiosity. The location is the last thing my cousin sent to my mother before she died, and I can sort of see what caught his attention.

I might not have noticed originally, but there's a strong Sky's . . . how to describe it? - protection? not exactly the right word, but anyways, a strong Sky's protection laying thick in the air. It isn't the first time I've encountered this, but it's rare, because usually Skys aren't away from something they want to protect long enough to necessitate the creation of a protection field like this. Any member of the underworld powerful enough to be important or a threat would be able to sense the protection hanging in the air like fog and steer clear of underworld activities this city for as long as the protection is here, not wanting to upset a Sky. I relax into the feeling of harmony, and let it lul me with its peace, glad not to have to fight off the attraction that would have come if the sky was actually here.

I settle myself down with a plate of mochi in a small plazza and just let myself feel the city around me. Bright spots of active, or at least trained flame users pop up, and I snort quietly as the many moving lights give me a sense of just how many people have taken advantage of this place's neutrality. Then come little lights, like candles in comparison to torches, of flame users who are being trained, but have not completed it yet. There aren't nearly as many of those, but they are still there. And finally when I'm familiar with the way all of the bright lights feel, those who have flame potential show up behind my eyelids, like fireflies blinking on and off in spurts as they unconsciously connect to their flames and use them to boost themselves in little way that those who have any amount of training learn to do all the time.

With a sigh, I gently pull back from the flame sensing meditation I'd put myself into and finish the last piece of mochi on my plate. I get up to dump the plate into the trash, and start wandering in the direction of the little tourist map that lots of cities have. I look at it for a moment before I take out the piece of paper and look it over, noting the address before looking up at the tourist map. I quickly find the spot I want to go to, and trace my steps from the faded red "You Are Here!" sticker.

Moments later I'm plodding towards the house of my cousin, ready for anything. I hope.

* * *

><p>Tsuyoshi pulled the door open without looking as he called back to his son, "Eat those carrots!"<p>

He turned with a grin at the reluctant agreement before he blinked in shock at the black haired boy before him. "Erin?"

"Ah- no," the boy who looked to be around five years old replied, fiddling nervously with one of the leather straps tied around his wrist, his other hand grasping the strings of a drawstring backpack. "I'm Akio. Would you be Tsuyoshi?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Tsuyoshi said, still staring at the child before him, taking in the grey or black clothing. "Yes, I'm Tsuyoshi. Why are you here?"

"You're my . . . um," the boy paused and dug out a card from his pocket. "You're my first cousin once removed. I'm supposed to come to you for a while right now while my father is off."

"So, you're Erin's son?" Tsuyshi asked carefully as the boy tucked the card back into his pocket, and he nodded.

"Yes, that's my father's name."

Tsuyoshi just looked down at the boy before him, meeting his purple eyes as he carefully let his flame sense free, feeling lightly for and mist flames, but there weren't any.

"If I may," he asked hesitantly, "Do you have anything of his? A picture, something."

The kid closed his eyes for a moment before he open them with a smile. He pulled the drawstring bag off his shoulder and rummaged through it before pulling out a folded piece of copy paper and extending it to Tsuyoshi. "Here! This is you and Father at Grandmother's place. I don't have the original though."

Tsuyoshi unfolded the paper and smiled at the photocopied picture on it. Suddenly footsteps pattered behind him and he looked down to see Takeshi clinging to his leg.

"Who's 'at?" Takeshi asked curiously, pointing at Akio, who stared at him with an unidentifiable emotion.

"That'd your cousin, Akio," Tsuyoshi said, dropping to his knees next to his son and holding the paper out so that Akio could take it back. "He's going to be staying with us or a while."

* * *

><p><em>Okay, do you guys want cannon divergence, or do you want me to continue in the way I've been going? Because at this point it could go either way, and I'm undecided as to which one I should do. Please PM or review.<em>


	9. Chapter 9

It only takes one question for my elaborate balance and evasion act to crumble.

"So, are you planning to go to school?" Tsuyoshi asks me as he pulls a futon out of his closet for me after dinner. "If we enroll you in the next two days, you can start on the first of next month."

Of course, the question itself didn't put me at risk, but it did bring up something I hadn't given much thought to before. I'd been planning to simply work on my computer, and claim that I was doing lesson from my dad, but looking at Tsuyoshi now, with his own kid my age, I don't think he'd approve of that, so I make make a noncommittal noise before I speak.

"My father has some lesson plans that he wishes for my to complete, but he wanted you to be in charge of me," I say, before I turn to my bag to dig out the extra debt card I'd ordered for my account as Aaron Tash. "This is for you to use for any extra expenses you need for me."

"I couldn't-" Tsuyoshi says, trying to refuse the card, but I ignore that and wrap his hand around it before I leave to brush my teeth and go to the bathroom before bed. I also check to make sure that the dye is still holding before I walk back to the room Tsuyoshi had cleared for my use. I turn the light off quietly and settle into the futon.

* * *

><p><em>Fifteen days later . . .<em>

I shift in place and hold back a sigh as Tsuyoshi once again goes over what's appropriate, and what the rules are, still uncomfortable in the new (bright) clothes he'd bought me after spending a week agonizing over weather or not he should use the card.

I'd anticipated the atrocities he'd make me wear in the name of 'cuteness', but the moment I saw them I was plotting on how quickly I could dump the whole lot into a bucket of my hair dye, or stain them with mud, moss, wasabi, anything is better than those bright colors. Finally, he can't put it off anymore, and I'm rushing out of the house, following a laughing Takeshi.

The Sky protection had faded into the background over the past two weeks, and I've noticed the harmony smoothing over worries, and letting me relax in a way I haven't been able in my memory (probably why I was off guard enough for it to happen). I'm pretty sure that I'll collapse soon after I leave without the support that I'm growing used to here, but I can't bring myself to leave long enough to stop myself from becoming dependent.

I smile at Takeshi as we skip towards the school together, but I can't help the slight pang of jealousy. Like the other kids who will grow up here, even if he never harmonizes with a Sky, his body will keep producing the chemicals that balance him as much as a flame user can balance themselves without the prompting because that's all he knew.

We slow down as we get near the school, and Takeshi quickly starts to babel a set of instruction, his eyes serious.

". . . and what ever you do, don't upset Hibari-san," he says quickly as we draw closer to the gates. He points at a kid who is standing there imperiously and watching the kids that walk past him like lord examining his subjects. "That's him."

"I won't," I promise just before we're in earshot, and after a serious nod, Takeshi gives me a smile, shifting his backpack slightly and nodding at the dark haired boy he'd pointed at earlier as we walk past into the school. Inside, I pull off my shoes and put them in the locker next to Takeshi's. I pull on the indoor shoes Tsuyoshi had bought me, and follow Takeshi to the class I'm meant to enter.

I go through the perfunctory introductions and take the seat in the back of the class that the teacher tells me to go to. I sit through the lesson bored, barely paying attention. The second teacher calls on me to answer something, and I do so absentmindedly without paying attention.

At lunch, I pull out the bento Tsuyoshi had handed to me and my lap top. I manage to work in peace despite myriad of stares directed at me. I sit through the second half of classes, once again barely paying attention, and doodling absently. I fill out the worksheets handed to me in moments. after school, Takeshi convinces me to stay while he meets with some friends to play baseball, and I shrug and sit down in the stands with my laptop.

I'm not paying much attention to anything as I quickly check over my accounts and my email, firing a quick series of emails off in response to the questions and orders that have accumulated since lunch. I smile briefly over Erasmo's email, detailing several things he thought would make my latest chapter better, and a chapter of the book he had started to write in his free time. After I change the chapter I'd sent to Erasmo, I start of a new one. About a quarter of the way through the chapter, I look up sharply at the sound of skin hitting skin, and someone crying. I set my laptop aside and stand, my gaze going to the small bathroom area off to the side.

I jog over there, and nearly growl at the sight that meets my eyes after I round the corner. There's a group of boys standing around a huddled figure and laughing. I slowly clap as I walk towards the boys, and they turn, fear flashing over their faces before they see me, and their jeers return.

"Truly fantastic job here," I say bitingly as they boy leave their old target and come towards me. "Beating up a young kid like that for no reason."

"Oh yeah?" the boy in the middle of the group asks. "None of your business."

"I think it's exactly my business," I reply as the boys surround me.

"Well then, we'll just have to beat you up too!" the leader of the group says, lunging at me, and the rest of the boys follow. I step on the leader's arm and use that to propel myself out of the circle and I land and turn easily, taking up a stance in front of the kid they'd been beating up earlier. "You runt!"

They charge at me, and I twist out of their grasp, tripping them and making them crash into each other, not one of them getting near the kid behind me. Finally, the leader trips over one of his group's legs, and growls in disgust.

"Come on let's go," he says, glaring at me. "They aren't worth it anyways."

I watch and wait until the bullies slink out of sight before I turn to look at the kid I'd saved.

And for a single heart stopping moment, all I can see is amber.

I sink to my knees before the kid, just staring at him. It's all I can do not to just collapse right there because of the sheer warmth and belonging that courses through my veins, and the Sky protection is nothing before it. Muscles I wasn't even are were there suddenly relaxed and knots that even the Sky protection hadn't soothed were unraveling in the blink of an eye.

"Are you alright?" the Sky before me asked, and all of the concentration I had managed to focus on staying upright was gone. I collapse to the side, and as the world fades to black I manage one last thought.

_I'm not sure if I'm grateful or horrified that Tsuyoshi made me attend school._


	10. Chapter 10

Tsuna blinked as the boy that had made the bullies go away just suddenly collapsed in response to the question.

"Hiee."

The whispered scream escaped him slowly, but after a moment he shook his head and made himself think.

_What should I do first?_

_Find out where he came from and put him back!_

Tsuna brightened as the thought came to him, and he surreptitiously poked his head out from behind the wall.

* * *

><p><em>What happened?<em> I think with a groan. It's not so much that I feel horrible right now, and rather that I feel so good that I'm suspicious of crashing from my high at any moment.

I let one eye open, and quickly slam it closed when the sun is suddenly shining _right there_.

"Akio?" someone asks worridly, a shadow covering me as I prepare to open my eyes again.

"What?" I manage weakly, trying not to let my confusion show.

_Think. What's the last thing you remember?_

_That little kid. I was chasing bullies off and I turned to look at him . . . he's a sky. He harmonized with me._

My eyes open, and I blink up at Takeshi, who looks concerned. "Akio are you alright?"

"Takeshi," I say slowly, blinking. "I'm fine."

"You don't look fine," Takeshi says with a frown. He shoulders his bag, and grabs mine as well before he pulls me so I'm sitting.

"I'm fine," I say slowly, looking down at my hands. Nothing's changed, and yet I suddenly feel as if every thing is better, brighter. I push down the laugh that starts to bubble up. "Really Takeshi, I just fell asleep."

"You were tired?" he asks anxiously, and I nod, though that's not really true, before the giggle I had been trying to hold back suddenly bursts out.

* * *

><p>I pull my formerly solemn cousin to his feet, careful not to frown.<p>

Akio doesn't seem to be connecting to the real world right now, just grinning like a loon and occasionally giggling as he stares into space. He's oddly relaxed, and his head lolls slightly as I pull his arm over my shoulder.

"Hey Takeshi, do you wanna hear a story?" he asks, stumbling for a moment as I start walking before his feet start moving, and I mumble something noncommittal, which he seems to take as a yes. "alright, so first you need to know about the mafia. That's like the European version of the Yakuza, you know?"

I half listen to his crazy story about how "the mafia isn't just darkness, it's much much worse. It's darkness and rainbows!" as I drag him back home. About halfway through his story, he manages to start walking on his own, and he uses his new freedom to make sweeping gestures with his hands as he describes battles between the different colors.

". . . and that's how the Orange rainbow princess saved me from those nasty black zombies!" he exclaims as I open the back door and he follows me into the room.

Dad comes in, and Akio brightens. "Fall Shower Guy!"

"Akio?" Dad asks as I set the bags down, before he looks at me. "Takeshi what happened?"

"No no no, it's not Takeshi's fault," Akio says, darting forward and throwing his arms around my shoulders. "It was that orange kid! Not that it was the orange kid's fault either."

Akio frowns slightly at his words before looking up with a smile. "But every thing's good now! Don't worry! All rainbows and rainbows!"

Dad is frowning at Akio. "Takeshi, could you pleas go make dinner? I left the rice for onigri to cool on the counter."

I nod, looking between Akio and Dad as Da moves forward.

* * *

><p>"Akio, what did you mean by rainbows,?" Tsuyoshi asks as he moves me to sit down on the floor by the coffee table. I frown at him. "You know."<p>

Then I smile delightedly as I remember something. "You're the knight in blue shining armor, come to wash the pain away!"

My voice goes sing song as I sway from side to side. "You know the purple medical mist, the red poison cooked storm too!"

I pause as I look over at him with a frown. "But they aren't _your_ colors though. No rainbows for you, no reds or yellows to blend out your blue."

"Akio, what are you talking about?" Tsuyoshi asks, his voice carefully blank. I frown for a moment, trying to think about how to remind my silly cousin about the flames before I thrust my hand out and it flames flicker into being on my skin, casting the room in a purple glow.

"This!" I exclaim happily, watching the flames flicker. I frown suddenly and bring my hand to my head, letting the flames flicker out. "My head."

"Akio?" Tsuyoshi asks, and I look up at him.

"Why're you swaying Tsuyo-kun? I have a headache."

"Erin?" Tsuyoshi asks incredulously, and I frown.

"I did send you those Christmas pictures right?"

The world slides left into darkness.

* * *

><p>I blink slowly and groan, the world coming into focus over my head.<p>

"What happened?" I grumble to myself, raising my hand to drag it through my ruffled hair.

"You harmonized, then you got sick when it tore open your channels," a man's voice says, and I bolt upright cousin Tsuyoshi. There's a pause while we stare at each other before me gives me a wry smile. "You're lucky I know haw to use my flames, and that I could tell what happened, Erin."

I gulp. "Tsuyoshi. I'm sorry-"

My apology gets cut off as Tsuyoshi's arms are suddenly around my, and after a moment of elbows digging into sides and . . . other unmentionables, I manage to get my arms back around him and we sit there hugging each other. then Tsuyoshi drapes back and shakes me by my shoulders.

"What were you thinking, just showing ujp on my doorstep like that? Didn't you think I'd want to see you if your child came through? And you didn't even write a letter for me to read and be understanding about!"

". . . Sorry," I mumble, and he shakes his head.

"It's fine," there's a moment for awkward silence as I stare at the ground. "So what were you really doing? and why do you look like a five-year old kid?"

"Well, what do know about the Acrobaleno?"


	11. Chapter 11

Tsuyoshi's face is blank as he draws back from me.

"No," he says. "Tell me that you aren't and Acrobaleno."

'I can't do that," I say, looking down as he draws back.

"Erin, they all die. All of them. It doesn't matter how long it takes, one moment they're there, and suddenly there's a whole new group that's the Arcobaleno instead, and it's always the strongest."

"I know," I say. "Don't you think I know that? I looked up all the lore, this has been happening for longer than the mafia has been around. This has been happening for so long. I found records online, in hidden data bases of things the archaeologists thought were religion, or something just made up, but Tsuyoshi, those were from over two thousand years ago."

"You went looking for records?" he asks, just looking down at me.

"Only after. It's not like anyone noticed. The recruiter wouldn't care because I've already done my part."

Tsuyoshi sighs, looking resigned. "So tell me about your Sky."

"He's small, fluffy, easily bullied, and I think his hair is brown," I list off. "He's very strong, he has to be to attaract me, and it may have just been the harmonization, but I could swear that his eyes were amber."

"That's it?" Tsuyoshi asks after a moment.

"I didn't exactly have time to ask him anything after I fainted," I grumble. "Yes, that's it. I rescued him from some bullied, and fainted when he asked me if I was alright."

"You fainted," Tsuyoshi asks, and I frown at him as he starts laughing.

"Yes, I fainted," I growl. "Stop laughing!"

* * *

><p>"Tsu-kun!" Mama call, and Tsuna looks up from the homework with a frown. The page is half full, and he's pretty sure that it's all wrong, but ever since he had to spend that month out of school when he was sick, he hadn't been able to do any of the work his teachers insisted he should be able to do, and no one would <em>explain it<em> to him. He usually managed to work out what he'd done wrong, but by the time he'd done it, it was too late and he was supposed to know another subject.

He sighed as he closed the work book and trudged down the stairs. He managed to smile for Mama at the the table and thank her for the food before he sunk into a haze as he thought again. This time, his thoughts tuned to that boy who'd fought to save him from the bullies earlier, and he blushed slightly as he remembered his panicked reaction when the boy fainted. He still wondered who the boy had been, and why, thinking back, it had felt so good to be with him, like it felt that one time the bullies had pushed him into the public swimming pool, knowing he couldn't swim, and everything had gone amber around him as he calmly moved through the water and surfaced on the other side of the pool.

He sighed though, and turned his mind back to the problem at hand. He still wasn't entirely sure he knew how to do the multi digit addition his teacher had introduced last chapter, but he thought he was starting to get it.

* * *

><p>I groan at the screams as we draw closer to the school, tightening my grip on Takeshi's backpack. If I didn't need to be here to find my Sky as soon as possible, I would have been back home, sleeping off the effects of the abrupt harmonization tearing through the barriers that had started to go up in preparation for withdrawing. As it is, I'm as dizzy and head-achy as I was after that one party with the Acrobalenos, meaning that if I let of of Takeshi's back pack, I am going to fall over and hurt myself. As it is, Takeshi's got an arm around me.<p>

I blink, and squint through the soft morning light, ignoring the knives it feels like and my dizziness as I search the playground for the kid that I saw yesterday.

There are a few kids with brown hair standing out against the sea of black hair, but I can't concentrate enough to even try to tell them apart from distance, and considering the way the ground is tilting even with Takeshi's help, going after them in not an option.

"Leave me here," I tell Takeshi. "I'll be fine."

"Akio, you couldn't even sit up straight, I'm not going to leave you here where people will step on you," Takeshi says, and I crack my eyes open.

"Then bring me over there," I say, gesturing to a bench on the edge of the play ground. He gives me and incredulous look, and i smile back weakly before he sighs and carefully helps my over to sit on the bench. "Thanks."

"I'm coming back for you when the bell rings," he says, the promise sounding vaguely threatening, and I nod. He leaves, and I turn so that my forehead rests on the the cool bench and sigh in relief.

Footsteps approach after a few minutes, and I open my eyes carefully, blinking once again when I realize that the light doesn't hurt.

"Excuse me?" someone asks timidly, making me look up and into a pair of amber eyes. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," I say slowly as I peal my forehead away from the bench. "You're that boy from yesterday."

Said boy blushes, but nods.

"Sorry you had to come and save me," he mumbles. "They always do this, and I can't find the courage to stop them."

"It's fine," I say, looking him over. There's something odd about him, quiet in the manner of not having anyone to speak to rather than of not having anything to say. I instantly resolve to change that as I stand and give him a little bow. "Thank you for not just leaving me there."

The boy blushes again and quickly gives me a little bow back. "Don't worry about it. I'm Sawada Tsunayoshi. Please, call me Tsuna. Who are you?"

"I'm Yamamoto Akio. Please, call me Akio," I reply quickly. "Will you be my friend?"

"Really?" Tsuna asks, startled as he looks up at me, and I nod.

"Really."

"Alright," Tsuna says. Then he smiles, and my breath wooshes out of me suddenly because it's so bright. "As my friend, would you like to come home with me after school?"

"Of course I reply on auto pilot, by my mind isn't on myself anymore. It's on this small, sweet, and utterly vulnerable Sky before me.

_Well. I think those vows are entirely appropriate now. I can see why so many people made them._


	12. Chapter 12

As it turns out, Tsuna is in my class, sitting a couple of rows over from me. This doesn't change the fact that somehow, I didn't notice him. I half want to bang my head on my desk, but I manage to smile at Tsuna and Takeshi.

At lunch, Takeshi coes over to sit with me and Tsuna waving off the rest of his team with a laugh, but there's something undeniably serous as he sits down to eat with us. We talk about school, and Tsuna blushes as he admits that his grades are horrible right now, making me frown.

"Do you know why they're so bad?" I ask gently, and he hesitates.

"You'll laugh," he finally mutters, not looking up from his food.

"No I won't. I promise," I say, scooting forward.

"What is it?"

"Well," Tsuna takes a deep breath before he blurts out his reasons. "I had to take a month off school once, and when I got back, no one would explain the work they did while I was gone. They just frown and tell me I should be able to do it, but no one explains! I manage to figure it out eventually, but I'm always behind, and I can't listen to the teachers because they's teaching using the terms they've already aught, but I'm still working out what those terms _mean_. That's all."

"No one explained to you?" Takeshi asks with a frown, speaking up for the first time. There's something I half recognize in his voice that makes me turn to him. "And you still managed to figure out what's being taught, even if you do so too late to get a good grade?"

"Yeah," Tsuna says, but I'm not looking as him. There's a light to Takeshi's eyes that takes me a moment to place, but then I realize where I've seen it before, at those parties I was forced to go to before I fainted. Right now, Takeshi reminds me of the young guardians at those parties, the one that didn't harmonize quickly.

"Then that's amazing Tsuna," Takeshi says, leaning forward, his voice more serious than I've heard it when he wasn't trying to help me. "I don't think that I could do that if I fell behind."

Tsuna blushes as I turn back to him, but there's a proud set to his shoulders now. "Thanks, Yamamoto."

"Call me Takeshi!" my cousin laughs, and suddenly the tension that had filled the air is gone as he laughs. I smile slightly, because it means that on some level, Takeshi was accepted as a candidate for being Tsuna's rain. "My cousin had the same family name, it would be too confusing to either one of us by it!"

"Alright," Tsuna says. "You should call me Tsuna. That's what friends do, right?"

* * *

><p>"Mama! I'm home!" Tsuna calls as we all pull our shoes off.<p>

"Tsu-kun! How are you?" a woman's voice drifts to us.

"I'm fine Mama," Tsuna calls back. "I brought some friends home, is that alright?"

There a pause before foot steps come towards us. "You brought friends?"

A brown haired woman appears int the doorways as Tsuna stammers out a reply. She looks us over with sharp eyes as Tsuna introduces us, and her eyes narrow on me.

"Alright Tsuna, you can go up to your room," Nana says, and Takeshi and Tsuna start towards the stairs. "I just need to talk with Akio here."

"Alright," Tsuna says, casting an apologetic glance at me before he tugs Takeshi up the stairs. Nana waits for his door to close before she walks forward.

"Who are you," she hisses at me, and I cross my arms.

"I'm Skull. The Cloud Acrobaleno," I say, and she frowns, starting to circle around me.

"Why are you here? What do you want with Tsuna?"

"I'm in Namimori to visit my cousin Tsuyoshi, Takeshi's father. He's my cousin. I didn't know anything about Tsuna until yesterday when I defended him from some bullies. I- he harmonized with me," I say, feeling somewhat awkward. "I don't know how it happened, but he somehow tore through the barriers. I wasn't fully withdrawn yet, but it hurt."

"It would," Nana says, pacing around me. "Well then, what do you plan to do now? Stay around here only as long as you need to so that you don't have to deal with a winy brat? Or were you planning to kidnap him, and take him with you?"

"Neither," I say, turning with her as she paces. "I don't have anything particularly pressing to do, and my other careers are bringing in enough money for me to stay here for as long as I want."

"Stay?" she asks. "What are you planning to do when he notices that you aren't growing. You won't look like a dwarf-"

"I know," I say. "I'll like like a child until I die. And I was planning to tell him, and anyone who asks that I've got a hereditary disease from my mother's family, one that's only visible in males."

"Alright," she says, finally, the dark aura going away bits at a time. She looks suddenly tired. "Can you help him? I can't figure out why he hasn't been able to catch up. His grades keep falling.'

"Yeah, I can help," I say. "I know what's going wrong. I'll keep him safe."

"Thank you," Nana says quietly. "You can go up now."

I nod and start climbing the stairs. Then I pause and turn. "Nana, don't worry. You've done an amazing job."

"I know I'm not suited for children," the brunette says without turning. "But thank you. I tried."

I turn back and climb up the stairs. I open the door to Tsuna's room to find him bonding with Takeshi over complaining about their homework. They look up as I walk i and close the door behind me.

"Hey Akio," Tsuna says. "What did Mama want to talk to you about?"

"Just stuff," I say with a smile. "Nothing too important."


	13. Chapter 13

When it happened, I wasn't exactly surprised. Luce had explained it to me during one of our talks when I had asked her why skys always had at least one guardian of each type. And if you've noticed the pattern, then yes, yes Luce was the only one to ever talk to me about flames in any actual depth.

She told me that harmonization is a very odd thing, and no two are alike, but they do tend to follow certain trends. One of those trends is that once a sky had attracted their first guardian, the rest of a first set will be soon to follow, and until there is a full set. After that, guardians can technically come and go; there can be more than one of any type at a time, so long as there is always one of each of the elements. Guardians tend to form sets of six, with one of each element, but after the first set, there is no frantic pull.

Back to the story, because of my harmonization I was basically waiting for some kid to decide to follow the pull, but I was still slightly surprised when I found Tsuna and Takeshi lying side by side and panting after I came back from a bathroom break.

"Honestly you two," I grumble, kneeling down next to them and brushing their hair back. Their flames have settled enough that the air no longer taste of ozone, but I can feel Tsuna's flames still moving restlessly in search of the other four. I sit back and watch the two of them lying on the floor in front of my for a moment, sharp eyes following every rise and fall of their chests.

"Akio, what just happened?" Tsuna asks after a moment, rocking his head slightly towards me. There's a moment so brief that I almost miss it where his eyes are a blinding amber color, but he stops moving and the go back to their original brown coloring.

"Do you want the easy answer, or the truth?" I ask as I turn slightly so that I can check of Takeshi. Takeshi's breathing had already calmed down, and he's looking at Tsuna and I with an almost unnatural calmness.

"The true answer please," Tsuna answers after a moments thought. "This . . . there's a pull, and all I can think about it the hole in my life. Akio, what's happening?"

"Alright," I sigh. "Let's get comfortable first."

I get Takeshi and Tsuna moving, and we settle on Tsuna's bed with Tsuna tucked between us. "Alright. First off, I'm not really supposed to be telling you anything. There's a slight loop hole because of who you are, but that's iffy. If anyone hears us talking about it, pretend it's a game that we made up together."

"I will," Tsuna promises.

"Secondly, I'm not using anyone's real names, so you don't have to remember not to slip."

"Got it," Tsuna nods, his eyes fixed on my face.

"So, let's start with the Flames. There are these special flames that can by anyone technically. They manifest when ever there is something you think you'll die doing . . ."

* * *

><p>"So what it all boils down to is that I have the power of love, and Takeshi has the power to make others slower and basically give himself super speed," Tsuna sums up when I finally stop talking, about an hour later, and I nod. He continues at my reassurance. "It's also practically guaranteed that within the next month, I'm going to meet and bond with four other people, and may bond with even more over the course of my life."<p>

"Yes," I confirm, and Tsuna closes his eyes.

"When did my life become a manga?" he groans. On his other side, Takeshi laughs as I can't help but smile at the two of them.

* * *

><p>On another note, the info dump for Luce also contained some other valuable pieces of information. Another trend of harmonization pertains not so much to harmonization as to the elements that were harmonized. Between elements of the same type who are bonded to the same sky or between two skys, forms a synchrony. Synchronys allow the two flame users to be aware to the other's action, and allow them to cover what the other is not covering. If both flames are of the same polarity; classical or polar, then one (usually the younger one) will slowly change polarities to allow them to cover the other end with more ease.<p>

Flame polarities (that thing I mentioned earlier) are flames that don't act like the classical element.

Storm flames are most well known for this attribute, and polar storms are most often referred to as the "Eye of the Storm". Classic storm flames are never relenting attackers, while polar storms seem to almost never attack; but should they ever need to be, they are just as fierce as their classical counterparts.

Sky flames on the other hand are rarely polar, as their attribute is understanding and accepting. When sky flames do go polar though, their user is usually very flashy and seemingly heartless, except that they are very possessive. Often times, polar skys harmonize with the elements that the weaker classical skys are unable to attract; and because these elements have been pulled at in so many directions, the tend to be less stable and are usually more violent.

Sun flames are also well known for going polar. Classical suns are known for fighting for their sky with their own body, and classic or polar are know to sacrifice themselves if it means that someone else will live. Polar suns are usually those who cannot fight themselves because of a disability or societal expectations, and many become medics and doctors. That's not to say that a polar sun can't fight off the enemy though, should they need to.

Polar lightnings, while less rare than polar skys, aren't very common. Classical lightning are very much so the lightning, drawing attention away from their sky and taking the damage upon themselves. Polar lightnings on the other had are more like thunder, nothing to pay attention to most of them time, and seemingly late; polar lightnings take advantage of the distractions created by others to slip knives into ribs and across throats before anyone can rip their attention away.

Rain flame users go polar in odd ways. Because of the rain's typical role of playing the one who soothes their sky and fellow guardians however they need to, there is no clear classic and polar. "Classic" rains are considered to be calm, like the rock when everything else is moving, and "Polar" rains are those that provoke their skys to work out their issues through anger. Most rains fall somewhere between the two extremes depending on the personalities of those they interact with.

Mist flame users go polar neither commonly nor rarely, but when they do, they are blunt. Traditional mist users are known for using their lies and deceptions to befuddle the enemy and disguise their family, while polar mist users turn your own words, perceptions, and misconceptions upon you to build upon them.

Natural polar clouds tend to be as rare as polar skys, and are usually the most dependent. Many clouds do go polar in their later life after some experience that makes it hard or impossible for them to remain as autonomous from their family as classical flames are.


	14. Chapter 14

Now that I'm paying attention to it, I feel it when Tsuna harmonizes again, the click making me jolt and look up.

I want to sigh when I see what Tsuna is doing. Ever since I told him about flames, he'd decided that he could protect other people from bullies at the very least. Because of that, when ever he saw any bullies, he would go up to the and distract them from their chosen targets. This time, he's protecting Sasagawa Kyoko, the most popular girl at school and her friend Kurokawa Hana from a pair of bullies that are trying to pour ink over Kyoko's practice paper.

"Oi!" I call, making the bullies turn towards me as I stalk up to them. "For the last time! I told you to stay away from Tsuna!"

The pair of them turn, and I blink as I recognize them as some of the bullies who were there when I first rescued Tsuna from bullies. I scowl. "Hey, aren't you two part of that group that tried to beat him up a couple of days ago?"

The two go pale as they recognize me, and they turn and run back to their tables. I turn to fac Tsuna with a sigh, and find him helping Kyoko up.

"Are you two alright?" I ask the girls, and Hana, who's letting Tsuna help her up nods after a glance at Tsuna.

"We're fine."

"Alright," I sigh, then look around. "Can we sit here?"

"Sure," Kyoko says before Hana can refuse. We start talking, Takeshi coming over at some point, and by the end of the day Tsuna's managed to make Hana open up enough to accept his invitation to come over to his house. There's a quick stop for Hana and Kyoko to call their parents and get permission.

It isn't till we're playing together that I manage to get a good read on them though. Kyoko, as it turns out, is very much a classic lightning. Hana, despite what seems to be a polar mist exterior, is very much a polar storm, seemingly harmless most of the time. But when the bullies started to threaten Kyoko, she pulled out the big guns. Hana is suspicious of us, but she follows Kyoko's lead. I suspect that she confronts Tsuna at some point all alone, because after a couple of days, the two of then trust us much more than what was normal, even factoring in the pull of a harmonization.

We meet the last two of Tsuna's first set the weekend after Kyoko and Hana harmonize with Tsuna, while we're at the Zoo. The two of them are friends by virtue of their mothers forcing them to spend time together. When we meet them, the red haired one is dangling from one of the tree limbs over a pit of snakes in the reptile house, and the black haired one is inching out over the snake pit. There aren't any other people in the reptile house with us because of the lion feeding next door.

It's the scared cry of "I'm slipping!", that attracts my attention.

"Just hold on, baby," the black haired boy, about two years older than Tsuna, grunts as I round the corner to find him inching his way across a dangerously wobbling branch. Four sets of foot steps arrive behind me, but I ignore them in favor of shouting up at the black haired boy.

"Lie down! If you spread your weight out, the branch is less likely to break."

He glances over to me momentarily before he lets his legs slide back and the branch doesn't bend as precariously.

"Thanks, kid," he calls, before he inches his way forward a bit more, just enough to grab a hold of the red haired boy's wrists as his grip slips. The red haired boy, whose face is covered with snot and tears sniffs, looking up.

"Thanks, Kensuke," he says, making Kensuke look slightly uncomfortable. "How exactly are you planning on getting me down now, though?"

"Er," Kensuke grumbles before Kyoko steps forward.

"We can catch him," she offers. "Swing him our way."

"Alright," Kensuke agrees, and I want to curse as he swings the red haired boy backwards, making the branch dip precariously, before he sends him back our way. The red haired boy flies through the air and crashes into Kyoko, Tsuna, Takeshi, Hana and I. We somehow manage not to drop the red haired boy or fall into a tangle pile ourselves, but the moment we let him go, the red haired boy curls up, clutching his stomach and muttering something I can't make up.

"Are you alright?" I ask what I look up to see that Kensuke is still in the same place he was in when he'd swung Shoichi.

"Give me a moment," he says, trying to inch backwards carefully, but every movement he makes had his body wobbling side to side, and he stops. "I think I'm stuck."

I want to smile, because this is something I can do.

"A moment please," I say as I grab a piece of bamboo from the side of the enclosure. A flash of flame gives me a pole of the same length and strength, and I push it solidly into the ground between the snakes slithering over the sand below. A couple minutes later, and some more flame assisted duplication gives me a full on bamboo platform, constructed right before the unbelieving eyes of the children. "Alright, you can roll onto here now."

"Thanks," Kensuke says, and does as I instructed. He jumps down from the platform and looks back at it, before he turns to the red haired boy. "Shoichi."

"I'm fine," Shoichi says sniffing.

"Would you like to come with us?" Tsuna pipes up, making the two of them turn to face him. The last two bonds snap into place, and I frown slightly as I raise a hand to my forehead, rubbing my temples in an attempt to fight off the emerging head ache. It's obvious that I'm not the only one who felt the harmonization, because everyone around me has a frown, and Kensuke had pushed Shoichi behind him.

"What was that?" he demands.

"Well," I sigh, drawing attention to me. "I guess I can'y put it off any longer. Welcome to unstable brain chemistry, because you won the lottery. All of you have an ability called flames."

"What."


End file.
